Bar Shuffleboard: Beer, Yes; Sticks, No

Shuffleboard as a Bar Game

Nikiya Scott, left, and Melody Malave playing shuffleboard at Plug Uglies in the Gramercy section of Manhattan.

Ruby Washington / The New York Times

By ADAM W. KEPLER

March 7, 2013

IF you find yourself walking into the Whiskey Brooklyn in Williamsburg, ignore (for the moment) the 99 varieties of whiskey in the window that are sold by the adjoining liquor shop. Head down the stairs, past the three-sided bar and the raised D.J. booth. Disregard the sounds of robotic destruction emanating from the Terminator: Salvation video game and go to the back of the room. There you’ll find two 12-foot-long wooden shuffleboard tables, your ticket to a night of rousing social interaction and entertainment.

This kind of shuffleboard is not to be confused with the game played with long poles on a cruise ship deck. It is a hands-on bar game worth seeking out and a welcome alternative to more common, classic barroom challenges like darts and billiards. It’s especially a diversion to savor at this time of year, when the winter chill has blown away other recreational options.

The object is to slide four metal pucks as close as possible to the other end of the table without having them fall off. This simple, dramatic act is equal to the tense and rewarding heights of putting in golf. You watch in hope (or horror) for a few passing seconds as the object nears (or passes) its intended destination. Millimeters make the difference between defeat and victory.

Andres Uribe, 23, who lives on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, said the inherent “winner talks, loser walks” philosophy of tabletop shuffleboard drew him in. After each game at the Whiskey Brooklyn, the winner gets to “keep” the table and await the next challenger. His incentive to win, he said, is to hold the table for as long as possible.

“It creates a more competitive atmosphere,” Mr. Uribe said. “You can try to stay on the table for the whole night.”

When he tells his friends that he is going to play shuffleboard, they are rarely enthusiastic. “Everyone asks, ‘Are you going to play with your grandma?’ ” he said. But he enjoys it, he said, “for that moment that you hit the nice shot.”

His roommate, Gilberto Roman, 22, said he had played only a couple of times. But he appreciates the game for another reason. “I’d say it’s one of the more liberal games, where you get to talk,” he said. “It’s more about having a good conversation while playing it.”

Shuffleboard as a tabletop game has become a fixture in many New York bars, including the Whiskey Brooklyn in Williamsburg.

Ruby Washington / The New York Times

Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC’s “Mad Money” and an avid shuffleboarder, compared it to another sport: “It’s like bowling for me,” he said by phone recently. “They are very similar, as you have to have the right technique; the only difference is that you need softness.”

Mr. Cramer plays near his home in Summit, N.J., at Elks Lodge 1246. The game has proved so popular there that the lodge began hosting a winter tournament four years ago. This year more than 64 teams signed up.

Though Mr. Cramer dismissed his own skills — “I like to play at 4 o’clock on Saturday, when no one can see me play,” he said — he keeps returning for more and has been a fan of shuffleboard for close to a decade.

“This is a game on a cold winter night or afternoon,” he said. “You go there and have a beer, play this game, and it is electric. Because you can beat the best if you get a little bit of luck.”

The game is most social when played with four people. Teammates are sent to opposite ends of the table, and you find yourself standing next to, and chatting with, an opponent who is often a stranger. The proximity is conducive to small talk and, depending on the opponent, casual flirtation that can build toward camaraderie rather than competitiveness. This differs from games like billiards or table tennis, in which the main interaction is giving the other person the stink eye or delivering some trash talk from across the table.

If you don’t know how to play shuffleboard, the Whiskey Brooklyn has posted 13 rules for the game on a wall above the tables.

Another Williamsburg bar, Burnside, on Grand Street, takes a similar approach. Its house rules are posted on a sheet of paper. There the shuffleboard table is much smaller, and the shorter distance makes it easier to complete difficult shots.

On the surface, Burnside appears to be just another first-floor Williamsburg tenement bar with a garden patio area in the back. But the menu is all about the Midwest: fried cheese curds, brats and Milwaukee’s Best beer. The more forgiving table, the relaxed atmosphere and the emphasis on battered chunks of cheese make it an ideal shuffleboard training ground.

Shuffleboard at Nancy Whiskey Pub in TriBeCa.

Ruby Washington / The New York Times

At Fat Cat, a huge basement bar on Christopher Street in the West Village, shuffleboard goes beyond casual bar pastime. Three tables are mixed in with billiards, Ping-Pong, foosball, chess and Scrabble. This variety, coupled with large groups of students from New York University nearby, gives Fat Cat the rambunctious atmosphere that you either dreamed of or actively avoided in college. This smorgasbord comes with a cost, though: depending on when you go, shuffleboard costs $5.50 to $6.50 an hour, per player. (The game is free at most sites.)

Many shuffleboard tables are tucked away in lonely corners of bars, begging to be discovered on the way to the bathroom. But at Nancy Whiskey Pub in TriBeCa, the table is the centerpiece. A neighborhood staple since 1967, Nancy calls itself the home of the city’s only “bank” shuffleboard table. It features padded bumpers along the sides and carries with it an unwritten rule: All slides, or throws, require a bank shot. Amateurs need not apply.

Looking for one of the longest tables in the city? Plug Uglies in Gramercy Park is your place. The table there is almost twice the length of a pool table. Squint, and you might have to squint to be able to see where your pucks stop on the other end.

Or perhaps you appreciate the finer things: an 18-year-old Scotch to go with your shuffleboard. Then go to the Dram Shop in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

And, finally, there is a bar that answers a question you probably never considered: What happens if you put an image of Michael Landon from “Little House on the Prairie” up on the wall of a room with a jukebox full of Van Halen songs, mix in some mulled wine and add a shuffleboard table?